Daniel M Murphy, Maya Abou-Ghanem, Daniel J Cziczo, Karl D Froyd, Justin Jacquot, Michael J Lawler, Christopher Maloney, John M C Plane, Martin N Ross, Gregory P Schill, Xiaoli Shen
Large increases in the number of low earth orbit satellites are projected in the coming decades [L. Schulz, K.-H. Glassmeier, Adv. Space Res. 67 , 1002-1025 (2021)] with perhaps 50,000 additional satellites in orbit by 2030 [GAO, Large constellations of satellites: Mitigating environmental and other effects (2022)]. When spent rocket bodies and defunct satellites reenter the atmosphere, they produce metal vapors that condense into aerosol particles that descend into the stratosphere. So far, models of spacecraft reentry have focused on understanding the hazard presented by objects that survive to the surface rather than on the fate of the metals that vaporize...
October 24, 2023: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America